Page 372 - The Social Animal

354 The Social Animal

Using the jigsaw method and these other cooperative strategies, the
striking results described in this chapter have been repeated in
thousands of classrooms in all regions of the country. 105 John
McConahay, 106 a leading expert on race relations, has called cooper-
ative learning the single most effective practice for improving race re-
lations in desegregated schools. What began as a simple experiment
in one school system is slowly becoming an important force within
the field of public education. Unfortunately, the operative word in the
preceding sentence is “slowly.” The educational system, like all bu-
reaucratic systems, tends to resist change. As the Columbine massacre
illustrates, this slowness can have tragic consequences. 107

The Challenge of Diversity Diversity in a nation, in a city, in
a neighborhood, or in a school can be an exciting thing—or a source
of turmoil. Desegregation has given us the opportunity to benefit
from that diversity. But to maximize those benefits, it is vital for us
to learn to relate to one another across racial and ethnic lines in as
harmonious a way as possible. It goes without saying that we have a
long way to go before achieving anything resembling racial and eth-
nic harmony in this country. The introduction of cooperative learn-
ing into our classrooms has helped move us toward this goal. The
challenges presented to an ethnically diverse nation have been graph-
ically depicted by the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter David Shipler.
Not long ago, Shipler traveled the length and breadth of this coun-
try interviewing a wide variety of people about their racial feelings
and attitudes. His rather bleak conclusion is summed up in the title
of his book, A Country of Strangers. 108 Shipler observed that most
Americans simply do not have close relationships with people of
other races; therefore, a great deal of suspicion and misunderstand-
ing prevail. Reading Shipler’s book reminded me of a statement
made to me by a Texas school principal in 1971, when desegregation
was causing problems in his school: “Look, professor, the govern-
ment can force black kids and white kids to go to the same school,”
he said, “but no one can force them to enjoy hanging out with each
other.” (The astute reader will recognize this as a variation on the
theme struck by William Graham Sumner, described earlier in this
chapter.)
As if to underscore his point, that same day, during lunchtime,
as I wandered around the schoolyard, what I saw was not an inte-